Integrated Marketing Communication Plan of KFC - Example

 Integrated marketing communication plan Executive Summary Since the establishment of KFC in Australia, the company has experienced growth that has seen its revenue increase for the past years. However, from the research conducted by the marketing communication team, it is evidence that several students are not familiar with KFC and the services/products it offers. KFC advertising and promotional campaigns are focused on increasing awareness among the target audience. The main parts of this integrate marketing plan include, the Target Audience, Marketing Communication objectives, Creative strategies and execution, and Media plan – including schedule and budget. Table of Contents Executive Summary 1 Introduction 3 Situation Analysis 3 Target Audience 4 Demographics 5 Psychographics 5 Positioning strategy 6 Marketing Communication objectives 6 Creative strategies and execution 8 Media plan – including schedule and budget 9 Frequency 9 Posters 9 Internet 10 Print Ads 10 Cost insertion 11 Flighting 11 Conclusion 12 Bibliography 13 Introduction This integrated marketing plan for KFC is meant to investigate the possibility of increasing the market base for KFC’s main product (chicken pieces). The entire marketing communication team at KFC will focus mainly on both marketing and advertising, in which the team wants to establish a possible plan and build a forecast on the success of KFC, especially in the sale of the main brand. This plan will be based on the available information about KFC, together with information about existing market of food franchise in Australia. The plan begins by giving presenting a situation analysis for the market and then the target audience (students). The Marketing Communication objectives of the plan are also clearly stated as well as the Creative strategies and execution. The writer also included the Media plan that constitutes the schedule and budget for all the communication media. Situation Analysis KFC was founded in America in 1930. KFC was founded in Louisville at the heart of Kentucky. Having created a base across the world, the company has six outlets in the sic continents. KFC offers different types of dishes, but chicken pieces are the major of KFC. Food franchise is very popular in Australia and chicken parts are offered in all outlets of KFC. In order to gain more insight into the KFC brand, we conducted an exploratory research in form of a survey. Our research was focused on students, being our main target. We managed to interview a total of 120 people aged between 15 and 30 years of age to be in a position to generalize the results. The results indicated that 80% of students preferred chicken parts among the dishes offered by KFC. When asked about their experiences with other food franchises in town, there were varied responses. Most of the respondents indicated that KFC chicken pieces were of great quality and easily affordable given their economic status. Others were really excited with the quality of services offered at KFC, which is incomparable across Australia. To develop a better understanding of when students visit KFC, we asked about habits. 50% of students visit KFC more than four times in a week; 26% two times in a week; and 24% at least once in a week. All students commended on the timely delivery of KFC, ranking it the best among all the food franchises in Australia. This shows that eating chicken pieces is part of Australian students’ lifestyle. The information gathered gave us an insight to how to offer even better services to the target segment. Target Audience The main target group we intend to focus on is students. Australia is a city with many students across the world. Different kinds of education are offered in Australia, ranging from various schools as well as educational levels (high school, practical school, colleges, and university) and various directions. In addition, there are various student societies based in Melbourne and very many students are found in the city during the day or pass through the city to reach the station to go in other places. As mentioned earlier this target audience will be the main focus. They are social group of people who like to hang out, chat and enjoy a bite together since most of them still stay with their parents. They may have a meeting for their students’ society or even have a discussion on a presentation to be made in class, which is normally done somewhere in town. KFC should be made a place to be. The target audience will use the service from KFC before or after school or even on their way home or somewhere. Demographics The research we conducted showed that an overwhelming 80% of students that buy KFC chicken pieces are undergraduate university students. The remaining 20% is composed of students from colleges (12%), practical school (8%), and high school. However, 60% of chicken pieces consumers were female students while 40% were male students. Psychographics The survey results further gave us more insight into target audience’s’ lifestyle as well as their attitude. An overwhelming 75% indicated to be price sensitive when asked whether price influences their decision to buy. In addition, when asked if discounts, coupons, and other promotional tools influence their buying behaviour, 30% of the target group agreed. Generally, the data shows that a part from quality, students are mindful of price when buying chicken pieces. The survey showed that the target market is greatly influenced by discounts and coupons, something KFC marketing team should consider in future promotional efforts. Since students are price conscious and more interested in saving money in possible ways they can, if KFC reduces the price for chicken pieces, it will be in a position to attract all students irrespective of their past experiences somewhere. Positioning strategy Given increased completion in food franchise in Melbourne, KFC intents to focus on improving the quality of the main product and having discounted prices compared to other service/product providers. Another positioning strategy for KFC marketing communication team is to indicate to the target audience that they can buy chicken pieces at the optimal price, allowing them to save more money compared to the competitors. We will also make sure that our target market can easily access the company’s brand easily and whenever in need of our services. Ideally, KFC should be made a place of choice by our target audience whenever they think of food franchise. Marketing Communication objectives The main communication objective for KFC is to increase awareness by effectively re-launching chicken pieces in the domestic market in Melbourne Australia. The company intends to increase its revenue through the sale of chicken pieces and we want all students to know about our main brand! To meet this goal, KFC will first need to educate the target group about what is new with chicken pieces. Students should know what KFC stands for as well as what they can give the clients. The company has to communicate to the target audience about its location as well as what they should expect from KFC. This will be enabled through advertising campaign. In conducting advertising campaign, KFC will consider the consumer process that consists of five main steps: 1. Physical date 2. Physiological screens (sensory) 3. Physiological screens (emotional) 4. Cognition 5. Perception files However, focus should be on the last three steps since they are more related to the objective of KFC of being noticed as well as being appreciated further by the target group. KFC will be made a place where the target audience feels good, treated with due respect and in a friendly manner, and where they enjoy having a stop to buy our best brand. We actually want to make our target market feel proud of being associated with KFC at all times as they continue to experience the company’s services and products. Since KFC is advantageous in being able to offer a range of products, there is always something for our target audience in terms of tailor-made services and products (Physiological screens, emotional). To establish increased awareness, the target audience will be made curious about what KFC intends to do. The company will not right away reveal to the target group the features of the re-launched brand. The marketing team will make the target audience curious, anxious as well as interested about the re-launch so that they can follow the entire process, to make them more attracted to KFC (Cognition). KFC operates in a highly competitive food franchise sector. There exist various substitutes in the Australian market. This is why KFC should no longer be perceived as ‘just another food franchise’ but a company more than that. The company should clearly increase target audience’s expectations by clearly stating that they can offer the best to everybody who visits or associates with KFC. KFC is a company that puts clients first and is ready to regulate the products offered to the target audience (Perception files). Creative strategies and execution To accomplish the above marketing communication objectives, KFC will apply different strategies of advertising. KFC intends not to use TV ads to communicate to the target audience. KFC has ever used this medium of communication, but it proved not to be effective in reaching the target audience at the right place and time, so this will not be used once again. First, KFC intends to use posters in increasing awareness about chicken pieces among the target audience. The main focus will be put on the public transportation system since most students use them while going to and coming from school. Big posters will be placed in strategic places, preferably stations where students must pass by when connecting to various destinations. These stations are also used by people coming to Melbourne. The posters will be hanged in all stations of the transport system connecting to and going out of Melbourne. The marketing communication team will also make sure that they consider the possibilities of hanging up posters in both trams and metro. Although such posters are considerably smaller, they will be positioned in next to direction signs to make sure that everybody can see and probably read their content. The company will also utilize the internet since many students are exposed to the internet. Companies with internet sites that are popular as well as frequently use by students will be approached to give us permission to use them to communicate to the target audience. Websites like YouTube, Facebook and college humour are frequently visited by students. KFC intends to promote its favourite brand to the target audience. University websites and Hotmail.nl will also be used to attract more students. In addition, the marketing communication team will place advertisements in magazines accessed by schools or students. Most schools in Melbourne, Australia have own publications where these ads can be placed for easy accessibility by students. A part from just placing ads in magazines and school publications, KFC will go an extra mile to conduct students’ societies (those with biggest as well as largest reach of students in Melbourne) and post ads in their magazines. To strengthen our marketing communication strategies, billboards along the major highways and roadways will also be utilized. These campaigns wi9ll be fully unified throughout Melbourne so as to deliver a stronger message about chicken pieces as well as increase retention among the company’s target market. Media plan – including schedule and budget The main objective of our media plan will be to effectively reach the target audience in the entire outlets of KFC. KFC estimated revenue of around $ 50,000,000 as of October 2016, so the marketing communication requested that 10% of this revenue to be put towards media budget (posters, internet and Ads). Frequency Posters The advertising campaign will commence four to six weeks before the actual re-launching of the chicken pieces in town. The begging first two weeks will be used to create curiosity among the target audience. The intention of the marketing communication team will be to make the target audience wonder as well as reflect on what KFC is going to do for them. The target audience will be involved in the implementation process so as to create more impact. This step will form part of phase one in our product re-launching efforts. In the following two to four weeks, also referred to as phase two, the marketing communication team will slightly change the ads to contain more information like the actual date of re-launching and preferably the venue. Phase three will take two weeks before the actual re-launching of the brand. The KFC team will use that opportunity to reveal the new features of chicken pieces that will be made available in all the outlets of KFC. During this phase, the team will also indicate the exact time and venue of re-launching the brand. The company is interested in building curiosity during the first part of the campaign, so that once the audience develops interest in the brand; it will give away the rest. Internet The marketing communication team of KFC chose to use internet as a medium of reaching the target audience since it has indicated to be nearly fully computer literate. Hotmail, in particular is a common internet service in Australia among the age group. The service also enables segmentation in regard to marketing. User will be signing up for the service by entering their full address. Thus, there is a possibility to only post banners on students’ sites in Australia. This will help reduce the CPM (cost per thousand), and the posting effectively targets our primary audience. The banners posted online by marketing communication team will have similar timeline as well as look like the billboards. The only difference will be in terms of format. This will enhance use of one single but powerful message instead of confusing the target audience with different messages, which could be hard to remember. Print Ads The marketing communication team will be kin to synchronize all the advertisements placed in students’ publications and school newspapers with the other mediums of communication. Actually, the objective is to place an advertisement in a similar part (preferably, the same page) of the newspaper, adjusting the insertion according to the phases in the campaign. Cost insertion The advertising part of the integrated marketing communication plan is budgeted for $ 50,000, which is close to 10% of the whole budget. However, this amount will be shared among the three selected media. Among the three media, billboards will receive the highest share of the budget, thus will be allocated around $ 25,000. The internet will receive the lowest portion of $ 10,000, while the remaining $ 15,000 will de directed towards print adverts. The last two budgetary allocations are done based on the cost of insertion (internet is more cheaper compared print ads) as well as reach. In particular, print ads will be used to reach a more specific target audience. Table 1: Cost allocation for the three media Type of media Costs ($) Posters 25,000 Internet 10,000 Print Ads 15,000 Total Amount 50,000 Flighting Flighting will be similar in all the three mediums of communication, posters, and internet as well as print ads. Because of the nature of the campaigns, although there exists only three phases of similar ads, the marketing communication team will ensure equal flighting in the entire campaign. However, when it comes to the third phase of the campaign, more advertisement could be used communicating only the relevant information, more so an announcement concerning the grand re-launching of the brand. Although, this information will be placed in the same locations as the previous ads, but more focus will be directed towards giving the audience information to related to ‘when and where’. All in all, KFC is remains a cool place to meet new friends and socialize with each other as you enjoy your favourite food. It will continue to provide a friendly atmosphere where students can enjoy each others company. Conclusion Conclusively, marketing communication team strongly belief that our current integrated marketing information plan will help increase brand awareness as well as brand loyalty for KFC. The communication strategies (posters, internet, and print ads) that we will use to conduct the campaigns will definitely expose our target audience to KFC. By making the company’s brand strongly recognizable, and creating brand loyalty, the entire team of KFC is confident that the market share and sales for the company will also increase. 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